For Giants, It's Win and Out

Victor Cruz and the Giants were happy during their rout of the Eagles on Sunday, but not after: They were eliminated from postseason contention.
Associated Press

By

Jonathan Clegg

Updated Dec. 30, 2012 11:07 p.m. ET

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—In a game that felt more like a heartbreaking defeat than a lopsided win, the Giants beat the Philadelphia Eagles 42-7 in their regular-season finale Sunday, but saw their faint playoff hopes finally extinguished.

The Giants' fate was sealed moments after the players left the field at MetLife Stadium. In Detroit, the Chicago Bears wrapped up a nervous victory over the Lions, and with that, the Giants' defense of their Super Bowl title came to an end.

For a season that once promised so much, it was a bitter way for the defending champions to bow out. Sunday's rout served as a reminder that few teams can live with the Giants when they play at their best, but this team was ultimately doomed by a pair of shocking losses in Atlanta and Baltimore the previous two weeks.

Those defeats meant the Giants entered Sunday's game relying on three other results to go their way. When the first of those didn't, their season was over.

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"You never rely on anyone else in this business," said coach Tom Coughlin. "You have to take care of your own business—and we certainly had our chances."

In the end, it was a season of missed opportunities for the Giants. This team looked like a lock to make the playoffs when it started out 6-2, and even during a second-half slide in which the Giants dropped five of their final eight games, there were emphatic wins over Green Bay and New Orleans that highlighted their promise. The Giants' 9-7 record is identical to the one posted by last season's Super Bowl winners.

But fourth-quarter collapses against Pittsburgh and Washington and embarrassing no-shows in pivotal games against Cincinnati, Atlanta and Baltimore ultimately cost the Giants the chance to control their playoff destiny.

"It definitely stings," said wide receiver Victor Cruz. "After coming off a season like we did last year, winning the Super Bowl, you want to get it and go back to the playoffs and potentially do that again. It hurts a little bit."

What surely makes the failure more painful is that Sunday's blowout of an overmatched Eagles team gave a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been.

The Giants offense, which had been lifeless the past two weeks, suddenly looked unstoppable. Behind a dominant performance from his offensive line, Eli Manning tossed a career-high five touchdown passes and the Giants rolled up 185 yards on the ground thanks to a bounceback game from Ahmad Bradshaw, who finished with 107 yards on 16 carries and eclipsed the 1,000-yard barrier for the season.

The defense, which had been lit up in each of the past two weeks, held the Eagles to just a single touchdown and surrendered just four plays longer than 15 yards.

And the Giants got a couple of belated breakout performances from a pair of rookies. Even as Bradshaw and Hakeem Nicks have limped through the season in varying degrees of physical discomfort, the Giants have limited running back David Wilson and receiver Rueben Randle to just a handful of snaps. Here, they saw their most significant action of the season and rose to the occasion.

Wilson rushed 15 times for 75 yards and hauled in a 15-yard touchdown catch, while Randle led all Giants receivers with four catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns, including a 34-yard grab over Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.

By the end, a team that was seemingly limping toward the end of the season had started to look like a squad that could have made some noise in the playoffs.

Within minutes Sunday, it was apparent that the Eagles weren't equipped to handle the frenetic pace and physical play of a fired-up Giants team sitting on two weeks of pent-up frustration. The Giants scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and led 28-7 a little more than halfway through the second quarter.

The Eagles' ineptitude was summed up by a 13-second sequence at the end of the first half in which their offense failed to convert a fourth-and-5 attempt at the Giants' 46-yard line. The defense promptly allowed the Giants to drive 54 yards in two plays, with Cruz catching a 24-yard touchdown just before halftime.

With the outcome all but decided, the second half was played out in a strange atmosphere as the crowd of 80,657 was largely focused on events in Detroit. By the time the game was over, the stadium was mostly empty. The Giants had beaten by the Eagles by 35 points, but no one was in the mood for celebrating.

"We obviously played really well today, so it's good to show that we can still play at a high level," said Manning. "But there's no enjoyment in not going to the playoffs."

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